Atari: We're Not Shutting Down

Last we heard from Atari, the storied video game maker that's
been floundering for years, it seemed likely that the
company was in the process of winding itself down/selling itself
of for spare parts.

It still looks that way to us: According to its most recent
10-Q, the company is bleeding red ink, is in default of debt
covenants, is running out of assets to sell off, etc. We don't
really understand the end-game here, since there doesn't seem to
be much of a market for a wounded games company that has sold off
much of its IP and no longer makes new games of its own.

But Infogrames, the French game company that owns 51% of Atari
(ATAR), says it wants to keep it around on life-support. At least
that's what we think based on
twointerviews
with new Infogrames CEO David Gardner. In the first, he says his
company's relationship with its U.S. unit "hasn't proven to be
ideal" but says the company is "moving in the right direction."
And he's slightly more enthusiastic in the second, where he says
Atari shouldn't have sold off many of its titles for cash, but
that the ones it has kept are worth... something:

"The good news is that we have a massive catalogue of properties.
We have the DNA of every major company through gaming history –
the Ocean, GT Interactive, Gremlin, Accolade factory of products,
it's a long genetic history."